Turkish PM Erdogan sees himself leading "Turkish Spring"

June 03, 2013|Reuters

By Nick Tattersall

ISTANBUL, June 3 (Reuters) - If there is a "Turkish Spring"to rival the pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East,Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan believes that he, and notprotesters in Istanbul, is leading it.

Erdogan has used his blustering, assertive style and acommon touch that courts the conservative Islamic heartland todominate Turkish politics like no leader since Mustafa KemalAtaturk founded the modern secular republic in 1923.

But four days of the fiercest anti-government protests foryears have shocked even Erdogan loyalists, and raised questionsover whether an authoritarian personal style now threatensdemocratic reforms from the early days of his decade in power.Opposition that has had little voice in an Erdogan-dominatedparliament appears to be spilling now onto the streets.

Erdogan is the son of a poor sea captain hardened by achildhood in Istanbul's rough Kasimpasa district. A pious youthwith soccer-playing ambitions, he was known wryly to allies as'Imam Beckenbauer' - an allusion to German soccer star FranzBeckenbauer.

He talks bluntly, dismissing the protesters as "looters",and leaving confidently on Monday for a visit to North Africa.

The gatherings of demonstrators on Istanbul's Taksim Squarehave drawn loose comparisons with protests on Cairo's TahrirSquare that toppled Hosni Mubarak; but no, said Erdogan.

"Those in the foreign media who talk about a 'TurkishSpring', we are already going through a 'Turkish Spring', wehave been living in it," he told reporters. "Those who want toturn it into winter will not succeed."

The reference was more than mere rhetoric.

"SERVANT OF THE NATION"

Erdogan sees his crowning achievement as taminganti-democratic forces that had long held Turkey back, inparticular a staunchly secular army that intervened to topplegovernments four times in the second half of the 20th Century.

He has rooted out a "deep state" of hardline secularistsensconced in the security services, judiciary and civil serviceand resisting democratic reform.

Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges ofplotting against Erdogan, while others including academics,journalists and politicians face trial on similar accusations.

Erdogan has shown political courage not only in confrontingthe generals but in seeking a peace deal with Kurdish rebelsunthinkable before he was elected in 2002.

Opponents, however, see in his actions a ploy to stifleopposition and subvert the secular order, an accusation hedenies.

They accuse him of infiltrating his own "deep state" ofIslamist activists into key areas of the state bureaucracy andbridle over his campaign against alcohol sales and his openingof state institutions to the symbol of female Islamic piety, the heascarf so disdained by Ataturk.

With a tight grip on the ruling Justice and DevelopmentParty (AKP) he co-founded with President Abdullah Gul, Erdoganis not a leader who is used to being challenged, particularly insuch a public and personal way, on the streets.

"If they call a person who is a servant of the nation adictator, I can find nothing to tell them," he said on Sundayduring the height of the unrest, with thinly concealed contempt."I have no concern but to serve my 76 million citizens."

The four days of violence, in which riot police backed byarmoured vehicles and helicopters fired tear gas and watercannon in Istanbul and Ankara, was triggered by government plansfor a replica Ottoman-era barracks in Taksim Square, acharacteristically grandiose project.

But it has widened into a broader show of defiance againstErdogan and the AKP, the party he created from an amalgamationof conservative religious forces, nationalists and centre-rightelements. The opposition says only the prime minister himselfcan bring it to an end.

"The prime minister has to come out and apologise to thepublic," said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main oppositionRepublican People's Party (CHP).

The tragedy of the opposition is that it has as yet nocredible leader to offer in Erdogan's place.

POLARIZING RHETORIC

Erdogan's AKP, the socially conservative successor to abanned Islamist party, has won three straight elections, eachtime with a higher share of the vote, and taken Turkey from crisis to Europe's fastest growing economy over the past decade.

That record has helped blunt misgivings over Erdogan'sintolerance of dissent, both among the party faithful andWestern allies, keen to see Turkey as a stable and successfulMuslim democracy in a turbulent Middle East.

"A strong, stable Turkey is essential right now for theregion. It is the key player. We hope this domestic issue issettled quickly," said one regional diplomat.

Such a narrative has for years kept the internationalspotlight off Erdogan's authoritarian tendencies, allowing himto govern by force of personality, cementing a pro-governmentmajority which leaves him with little need to seek consensus.